Monday, November 19, 2012

Thankful For Fantasy

This is the time of year we reflect on
what we are grateful for, so I asked the authors of the Enchanted Inkpot which
fantasy book they are thankful for. The answers are below!

Lisa Amowitz:

Just one? Okay--Patrick Ness and the
Chaos Walking Trilogy, The knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the
Answer, Monsters of Men. (I still managed to pick three).

Hilari Bell:

One fantasy novel I'm thankful for is Patricia
McKillip's Riddle of Stars Trilogy. I'm not sure which book it was in,
but these were the books that, through the sheer power of the way she used
language, convinced me that I could shapeshift into a tree. In my head, I
knew that of course it was impossible, but in my heart I absolutely knew that
people could do this. And I was in my late 20's when I read those books.
Worth being thankful for.

Shelley Moore Thomas:

As for me, I am thankful for The Search
For WandLa by Tony DiTerlizzi. It was my favorite fantasy read of the
year because of the incredible world building, the awesome characters, and the
mind-blowing twist that I did NOT see coming. Well, done, Tony! I
find myself thinking about this book again and again. There is such a
timeless quality to this sci-fi fantasy that I am sure kids will be loving it
for years to come.

William
Alexander:

A Wizard of Earthsea. I read it when I
was eleven, and it helped me decided what kind of person I wanted to
become.

P.J.
Hoover:

The fantasy book I'm most thankful for
is THE SILMARILLION by J. R. R. Tolkien. It's an amazing introduction to the
history of Middle Earth, and I poured over it back when the LOTRs movies were
coming out. I immersed myself so deep into the world and I loved it. And then,
one day, I had a eureka moment. It dawned on me that I was spending a ton of
time in a world someone else had created when, instead, I could be creating
worlds of my own. So I started writing and haven't stopped.

Myself? I’m thankful for THE LION THE
WITCH AND THE WARDROBE. That was the book that made me feel like another world
did exist and was within my reach, a place where I could be special. It got my
imagination working, and I’m pretty sure that’s why I do what I do today.

Some here I haven't read--good suggestions! I guess I'd have to say LOTR, uninspired an answer as that is. My household didn't read that much fantasy, and Tolkien's books were a revelation to me. They weren't the first fantasies I"d read by any means (I was already in high school when I discovered them) but I'd never been sucked into a world like that. I read the trilogy nonstop, barely sleeping, over a couple of days, then ran out and got my hands on The Hobbit. What a legacy that man left us.

There are so many fantasy books I am thankful for, but the two that jump out the most for me would have to be The Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter. Those two series where just so brilliantly done and absolutely swept me up in to the world and lives of the characters.

I'm grateful for many, many books! And can never limit myself to just one. But, bending the rules, I'm taking this moment to express my gratitude for a whole shelf's worth of fantasy books: the Oz books, the Narnia books, Lord of the Rings, E. Nesbit, Tom's Midnight Garden (Philippa Pearce), Edward Eager's Half Magic and Knight's Castle, and all the wonderful Moomin books by Tove Jansson. There! I jammed a lot of goodness into that one shelf!

I am sure my answer would change with every day, but today Edward Eager pops out for me, too -- especially SEVEN DAY MAGIC, where the magic comes from what each kid finds in a book. And not always very nice magic, either.

I'm most thankful for Philip Pullman's HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy for setting me firmly on my writing path. Such fabulous world building, and I adored Lyra Bellacqua. Then, I'm thankful to Harry Potter for blasting the kidlit market so wide open (and for the books!), Kate diCamillo's THE MAGICIAN'S ELEPHANT for making me laugh and cry, Stefan Bachmann's recent wonderful/magical THE PECULIAR for the same, Laurie Halse Anderson's work for showing me how gritty one can get...and so many more!

So hard to pick just one! But the first book I'll put on my shelf is Susan Cooper's THE DARK IS RISING, which brought history and myth and music and magic together in powerful new ways for me. And then next to it, I'll add some more books that helped shape who I am and how I write: THE PERILOUS GARD and ENCHANTRESS FROM THE STARS and WOLVES OF WILLOUGHBY CHASE and BLACK HEARTS IN BATTERSEA and TOM'S MIDNIGHT GARDEN...